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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 613 records · Page 34

MIP dQ/dx Calibration in DUNE ND-LAr Prototypes with Pixelated Charge Readout

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be a next-generation long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment that will employ LArTPC technology in a near detector placed at Fermilab and a far detector at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, at a baseline of 1300 km. The DUNE Liquid Argon Near Detector (ND-LAr) design takes into account the high neutrino intensity expected from the beam at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF): 35 modules, each containing two optically separated time projection chambers, are instrumented with a pixel-based, true 3D charge readout alongside scintillation light traps to disentangle the O(100) interactions expected per 10us beam spill. A robust prototyping program supports ND-LAr’s design: the 2x2 Demonstrator consists of four scaled-down ND-LAr modules exposed to the NuMI beam at Fermilab, and the Full Scale Demonstrator (FSD) is a single ND-LAr module tested with cosmic rays at the University of Bern. We present here an analysis of minimum ionizing particle (MIP) tracks selected from 2x2 beam data and FSD cosmic ray data used to benchmark the pixel-based charge readout simulation and calibration in both detectors, with the ultimate goal of validating the design of DUNE ND-LAr as well as informing future calibration methods. This poster will showcase the dependence of the charge response on track inclination as well as a per-pixel dQ/dX extraction.

Mandujano, Roberto [UC, Irvine]↗

Power Split Supercharging: A Mild Hybrid Approach to Boost Fuel Economy

This work investigates an innovative low-voltage (<60 V) hybrid device that enables engine boosting and downsizing in addition to mild hybrid functionalities such as regenerative braking, start-stop, and torque assist. A planetary gear set and a brake permit the power split supercharger (PSS) to share a 9 kW motor between supercharging the engine and direct torque supply to the crankshaft. In contrast, most e-boosting schemes use two separate motors for these two functionalities. This single motor structure restricts the PSS operation to only one of the supercharging or parallel hybrid modes; therefore, an optimized decision making strategy is necessary to select both the device mode and its power split ratio. An adaptive equivalent consumption minimization strategy (A-ECMS), which uses the battery state of charge (SoC) history to adjust the equivalence factor, is developed for energy management of the PSS. The A-ECMS effectiveness is compared against a dynamic programming (DP) solution with full drive cycle preview through hardware-in-the-loop experiments on an engine dynamometer testbed. The experiments show that the PSS with A-ECMS reduces vehicle fuel consumption by 18.4% over standard FTP75 cycle, compared to a baseline turbocharged engine, while global optimal DP solution decreases the fuel consumption by 22.8% compared to the baseline.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

AN HST PROPER-MOTION STUDY OF THE LARGE-SCALE JET OF 3C273

The radio galaxy 3C 273 hosts one of the nearest and best-studied powerful quasar jets. Having been imaged repeatedly by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) over the past twenty years, it was chosen for an HST program to measure proper motions in the kiloparsec-scale resolved jets of nearby radio-loud active galaxies. The jet in 3C 273 is highly relativistic on sub-parsec scales, with apparent proper motions up to 15c observed by very long baseline interferometry. In contrast, we find that the kiloparsec-scale knots are compatible with being stationary, with a mean speed of −0.2 ± 0.5c over the whole jet. Assuming the knots are packets of moving plasma, an upper limit of 1c implies a bulk Lorentz factor Γ < 2.9. This suggests that the jet has either decelerated significantly by the time it reaches the kiloparsec scale, or that the knots in the jet are standing shock features. The second scenario is incompatible with the inverse Compton off the Cosmic Microwave Background (IC/CMB) model for the X-ray emission of these knots, which requires the knots to be in motion, but IC/CMB is also disfavored in the first scenario due to energetic considerations, in agreement with the recent finding of Meyer and Georganopoulos which ruled out the IC/CMB model for the X-ray emission of 3C 273 via gamma-ray upper limits.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Plant Water Profiler: A Tool for Understanding Water Use, Cost and Savings Potential for Manufacturing Plants

In the 1746 Poor Richard’s Almanack, Benjamin Franklin published “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” (Franklin, 1746); industrial water users have begun to see the truth in these words as they examine the potential and reality of water scarcity becoming a significant business risk. Through the authors’ interactions with manufacturers via the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants program and Strategic Analysis projects, they realized that manufacturing facilities often do not fully understand the risks to the water supply and the consequential risks to their business. The authors’ also noticed that many facilities do not know how their water is used (baselining), how they compare with their peers (benchmarking), the actual cost impacts of water use (true cost of water), and potential areas for water savings. This results in a lack of motivation and ability to identify and implement effective water-efficiency measures.The Plant Water Profiler Tool (PWP) was created to help manufacturing plant management address these issues by identifying and accounting for water use in manufacturing operations, helping determine the true cost of water, and providing some high-level estimates for peer comparison. The PWP uses a water mass balance and common engineering equations to estimate water use by each of the facility’s systems (e.g., differentiating process water use from cooling and restroom water use), even when no submetering data is available. This new tool also helps users identify possible areas for water savings and associated water and energy cost savings, making it a potentially useful resource for corporations conducting water assessments. Additionally, governments and private organizations can use the methodology behind this tool to design a survey to help build a database of industrial water use. This paper and corresponding presentation provide an overview of current industrial water use practices and tools, as well as the value of determining the true cost of water. It also briefly describes the methodology behind the tool, then focuses on its functionality through an industrial case study and lessons learned from implementing the case study.

Armstrong, Kristina O.↗

Evaluating alternate test techniques to characterize mechanical properties in nuclear-grade graphites - 18421

The deployment of graphite as a core structural material in the very high temperature reactor (VHTR) design presents a number of challenges with regard to accurate property and performance assessments. In the United States Advanced Reactor Technologies (ART) program, candidate VHTR graphite grades are being evaluated not only with respect to irradiated property values, but also with a focus on comprehensive data sets that explicate the property variability inherent to nuclear-grade graphites. The large data sets being compiled on baseline physical and mechanical properties provide a means not only to quantify variability within and between major graphite grades, but also to evaluate test techniques utilized on irradiated specimens that are severely limited in size and geometry. Detailed appraisals of emerging mechanical test techniques that either (a) fall outside of the prescribed test size and configuration constraints in order to be assembled into irradiation capsule such as the three-point bend test on sub-sized cylinders or (b) are not yet fully evaluated and standardized by ASTM International such as the Brazilian disc splitting tensile strength test can be more accurately generated when a broad comparison is possible that leverages multiple mechanical tests on full-size specimens using approved standards. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

High-quality Extragalactic Legacy-field Monitoring (HELM) with DECam

High-quality Extragalactic Legacy-field Monitoring (HELM) is a long-term observing program that photometrically monitors several well-studied extragalactic legacy fields with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) imager on the CTIO 4m Blanco telescope. Since Feb 2019, HELM has been monitoring regions within COSMOS, XMM-LSS, CDF-S, S-CVZ, ELAIS-S1, and SDSS Stripe 82 with few-day cadences in the $(u)gri(z)$ bands, over a collective sky area of $\sim 38$ deg${\rm ^2}$. The main science goal of HELM is to provide high-quality optical light curves for a large sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and to build decades-long time baselines when combining past and future optical light curves in these legacy fields. These optical images and light curves will facilitate the measurements of AGN reverberation mapping lags, as well as studies of AGN variability and its dependences on accretion properties. In addition, the time-resolved and coadded DECam photometry will enable a broad range of science applications from galaxy evolution to time-domain science. We describe the design and implementation of the program and present the first data release that includes source catalogs and the first $\sim 3.5$ years of light curves during 2019A--2022A.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Whisper Results of a PuCl "Solution" System Using LLNL TEX Cl Benchmark Model

This data set is to be shared with the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD) at LLNL as part of a TEX Cl experiment. NCSD at LLNL shared the experimental model with the Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) Division at LANL for comparison with an MCNP model of a PuCl application system. The experimental model was used in conjunction with Whisper to see how including it would impact the baseline USL for the PuCl application.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Environmental cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park - Year three - A status report - 15522

On August 1, 2011, URS - CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) began its five-year, $1.4 billion cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, located on the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge Reservation (Reservation) in Tennessee. Under the contract, the base period scope of work to be completed by 2016 includes demolition of both the K-25 and K-31 gaseous diffusion buildings and all demolition waste dispositioned, initiation of demolition on the remaining K-27 gaseous diffusion building, safe storage of transuranic (TRU) waste for eventual transfer to the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, previously designated -No-Path-To-Disposition Waste- dispositioned to the extent possible, and completion of design and engineering of a mercury treatment system to be installed at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12). UCOR will have also managed DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM)-owned facilities at ETTP, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Y-12 in a safe and cost-effective manner. Since assuming responsibilities as the ETTP and Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup contractor, UCOR has completed its life-cycle Performance Measurement Baseline; received its Earned Value Management System (EVMS) certification; completed the deactivation and demolition (D and D) of the 44-acre K-25 gaseous diffusion building; removed and disposed of a contaminated underground storage tank (Tank W-1A) at ORNL; dispositioned mercury-contaminated storage tanks at Y-12; completed closure of the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator; disposed of more than 158,000 cubic yards of cleanup waste while managing the on-site Environmental Management Waste Management Facility (EMWMF); and conducted operations, surveillance, and maintenance activities at 180 DOE EM facilities at ETTP, ORNL, and Y-12 in a safe and cost-effective manner. In 2014, UCOR completed the removal and disposal of all of the K-25 demolition debris; completed the removal of asbestos-laden transite siding on the K-31 gaseous diffusion building and began demolition of that 17-acre building; advanced the characterization and deactivation of the K-27 gaseous diffusion building, readying the building for the start of demolition in 2015; advanced the design and engineering of a Mercury Treatment Facility to be located at Y-12; continued the cost-effective and safe disposition of all cleanup wastes; and readied ETTP for Voluntary Protection Program Star Status Assessment in 2015. Project performance as of December 31, 2014, continued to be excellent: - Cost Performance Index - 1.12 - Schedule Performance Index - 1.02 At the same time, since safety is the foundation of all cleanup work, UCOR's safety record goes hand-in-hand with its excellent project performance. Through calendar year 2014, UCOR's recordable injury rate was 1.04 occurrences per 200,000 work hours, and the lost workday case rate was 0.52. This performance continues to be due, in large part, to the people and processes URS and CH2M HILL, the parent companies of UCOR, brought to the project. Key enablers included: - Selected and deployed experienced staff in key leadership positions throughout the organization, continually re-energizing the organization with new leaders - Implemented previously successful safety programs and initiatives from other DOE sites, such as DOE's Voluntary Protection Program - Brought fresh thinking and innovation to tackling tough project issues, such as the deactivation of the Technetium-99-contaminated areas of K-27, applying lessons learned from the D and D of K-25; and implementing a -waste factory- approach to cleanup - Maintained continuing alignment between UCOR's contract with DOE and its Performance Measurement Baseline - rapidly addressing contract changes when they arose - Maintained a readiness both from a process as well as experienced personnel perspective to support DOE OREM in performing other significant Oak Ridge Reservation cleanup activities. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

CilkSpec: Optimistic Concurrency for Cilk

Recursive parallel programming models such as Cilk strive to simplify the task of parallel programming by enabling a simple divide-and-conquer model of programming. This model is effective in re- cursively partitioning work into smaller parts and combining their results. However, recursive work partitioning can impose additional constraints on concurrency than is implied by the true dependences in a program. In this paper, we present a speculation-based approach to alleviate the concurrency constraints imposed by such recursive parallel programs. We design a runtime infrastructure that supports speculative execution and a predictor to accurately learn and identify opportunities to relax extraneous concurrency constraints. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that speculative relaxation of concurrency constraints can deliver gains of up to 1.6× on 30 cores over baseline Cilk.

cilk↗

NOvA in 10 Minutes

NOvA is a long-baseline oscillation neutrino experiment composed by two functional identical detectors, a 300 ton Near Detector and 14kton Far Detector separated by 809 km and placed in an off-axis neutrino beam created at Fermilab, this configuration provides NOvA with a rich neutrino physics program to measure neutrino mixing parameters, determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and CP violation in the leptonic sector. In this talk an overview and results from the NOvA experiment are presented

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Disaster-survivable cloud-network mapping

Cloud-computing services are provided to consumers through a network of servers and network equipment. Cloud-network (CN) providers virtualize resources [e.g., virtual machine (VM) and virtual network (VN)] for efficient and secure resource allocation. Disasters are one of the worst threats for CNs as they can causemassive disruptions and CN disconnection. A disaster may also induce post-disaster correlated, cascading failures which can disconnect more CNs. Survivable virtual-network embedding (SVNE) approaches have been studied to protect VNs against single physical-link/- node and dual physical-link failures in communication infrastructure, but massive disruptions due to a disaster and their consequences can make SVNE approaches insufficient to guarantee cloud-computing survivability. In this work, we study the problem of survivable CN mapping from disaster. We consider risk assessment, VM backup location, and post-disaster survivability to reduce the risk of failure and probability of CN disconnection and the penalty paid by operators due to loss of capacity.We formulate the proposed approach as an integer linear program and study two scenarios: a natural disaster, e.g., earthquake and a human-made disaster, e.g., weapons-of-mass-destruction attack. Finally, our illustrative examples show that our approach reduces the risk of CN disconnection and penalty up to 90% compared with a baseline CN mapping approach and increases the CN survivability up to 100% in both scenarios.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Selective Filtration of Gadolinium Trichloride for Use in Neutron Detection in Large Water Cherenkov Detectors

Water Cherenkov detectors have been used for many years as inexpensive, effective detectors for neutrino interactions and nucleon decay searches. While many important measurements have been made with these detectors a major drawback has been their inability to detect the absorption of thermal neutrons. We believe an inexpensive, effective technique could be developed to overcome this situation via the addition to water of a solute with a large neutron cross section and energetic gamma daughters which would make neutrons detectable. Gadolinium seems an excellent candidate especially since in recent years it has become very inexpensive, now less than $\$$8 per kilogram in the form of commercially-available gadolinium trichloride, GdCl 3 . This non-toxic, non-reactive substance is highly soluble in water. Neutron capture on gadolinium yields a gamma cascade which would be easily seen in detectors like Super-Kamiokande. We have been investigating the use of GdCl 3 as a possible upgrade for the Super-Kamiokande detector with a view toward improving its performance as a detector for atmospheric neutrinos, supernova neutrinos, wrong-sign solar neutrinos, reactor neutrinos, proton decay, and also as a target for the coming T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment. This focused study of selective water filtration and GdCl 3 extraction techniques, conducted at UC Irvine, followed up on highly promising benchtop-scale and kiloton-scale work previously carried out with the assistance of 2003 and 2005 Advanced Detector Research Program grants.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

​​Updates to Anaerobic Digestion Pathways for Animal Manure in R&D GREET 2025​

Livestock and poultry manure management in the U.S. is a greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive process, emitting 81.7 MMT CO 2 e in 2022 (1.5% of net U.S. GHG emissions). The primary GHG is methane (CH 4 ), with 2,312 kt released in 2022 (9% of U.S. CH 4 emissions). Manure management methods are commonly categorized by whether they are anaerobic (“wet”) or aerobic (“dry”) techniques. Although dry methods manage the largest share of manure, the majority of GHG emissions are generated during storage of manure in anaerobic conditions – typically in water-filled tanks, pits, or lagoons. There has been a 65% increase in emissions from 1990, primarily due to an increasing cattle population. Also, this rise in population has been coupled with a rise in animal confinement and density, which typically adopt wet manure management methods. Within wet methods, anaerobic bacteria proliferate and decompose volatile solids (VS) within the manure in a process called anaerobic digestion to produce roughly equal mixtures of CH 4 and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). These GHGs are fugitive, in that they are assumed to be released to the atmosphere and contribute to GHGs within U.S. GHG inventories. If the methane is captured and purified (i.e., “upgraded”) this simultaneously mitigates GHGs that would have otherwise been released and produces a valuable energy product known colloquially as Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). Such processes are acknowledged by U.S. policy through programs such as the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), the federal Clean Fuel Production Credit (45Z), and state clean fuel standards (CFS). In the 45Z and CFS schemes, the GHG emissions of the business-as-usual (BAU) manure management system is taken as a baseline, and credits are received based on GHG reductions relative to this baseline. Thus, estimating the GHG emissions of the BAU scenario (also known as the “counterfactual”) is necessary.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Peak Power Reduction for HVAC Operations in Multi-unit Commercial Buildings

The load profiles of most commercial consumers are characterized by brief periods of very high power consumption followed by intervals of relatively lower demand. In order to flatten commercial load profiles, several power utilities in addition to billing energy consumption, levy a demand charge (DC) on the monthly peak demand. In this work, we consider the problem of joint optimization of energy costs (EC) and DC incurred by a multi-unit building which follows a demand response (DR) program. Despite the non-linear structure of the problem, we show how the optimal solutions can be obtained efficiently using linear programming. We evaluate the performance of the proposed power control scheme for various climate zones in the US. We show that depending on the ambient conditions and the prescribed tariff structure, our strategy can result in savings of up to nearly 19% compared to the baseline.

Raza Naqvi, Syed A.↗

Connected Vehicle-Based Traffic Signal Coordination

This study presents a connected vehicles (CVs)-based traffic signal optimization framework for a coordinated arterial corridor. The signal optimization and coordination problem are first formulated in a centralized scheme as a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP). The optimal phase durations and offsets are solved together by minimizing fuel consumption and travel time considering an individual vehicle’s trajectories. Due to the complexity of the model, we decompose the problem into two levels: an intersection level to optimize phase durations using dynamic programming (DP), and a corridor level to optimize the offsets of all intersections. In order to solve the two-level model, a prediction-based solution technique is developed. The proposed models are tested using traffic simulation under various scenarios. Compared with the traditional actuated signal timing and coordination plan, the signal timing plans generated by solving the MINLP and the two-level model can reasonably improve the signal control performance. When considering varies vehicle types under high demand levels, the proposed two-level model reduced the total system cost by 3.8% comparing to baseline actuated plan. MINLP reduced the system cost by 5.9%. It also suggested that coordination scheme was beneficial to corridors with relatively high demand levels. For intersections with major and minor street, coordination conducted for major street had little impacts on the vehicles at the minor street.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Optimal Heliostat Assignment Strategy for Multiple-Receiver Systems

Next-generation concentrating solar power concepts currently being developed under the U.S. Department of Energy's Gen3 program include several novel heliostat field and receiver arrangements. Among these concepts are solar fields utilizing multiple receivers or several distinct receiver flux control zones, and each of which has particular power or peak flux constraints. In this paper, we present a linear program that identifies optimal heliostat-to-receiver assignment strategies for multi-receiver or multi-zone solar fields based on detailed calculations made by an optics modeling package. Two distinct problems are addressed: namely, (1) a design problem that chooses the optimal set of heliostats to include in a final layout given receiver constraints and performance, and (2) an operations problem that assigns existing heliostats to a receiver, maximizing field power output while maintaining receiver power constraints. The optimization methodology is integrated into the concentrating solar power tower modeling package SolarPILOTTM, and results are presented showing that heliostat assignment strategies can impact both initial heliostat field layout characteristics and the cost of thermal energy produced by the field. The methodology succeeds in maintaining power requirements but at the expense of producing different flux profiles on each receiver surface. Consequently, the paper also discusses additional measures that are applied to ensure that desirable flux distribution properties are maintained, reducing local flux mean-absolute-deviation values from a baseline of 17% or greater to less than 5% compared to a desired reference flux profile.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

Carbon emission responsive building control: A case study with an all-electric residential community in a cold climate

In the United States, buildings account for 35% of total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, making them important contributors to decarbonization. Carbon intensities in the power grid are time-varying and can fluctuate significantly within hours, so shifting building loads in response to the carbon intensities can reduce a building’s operational carbon emissions. This paper presents a rule-based carbon responsive control framework that controls the setpoints of thermostatically controlled loads responding to the grid’s carbon emission signals in real time. Based on this framework, four controllers are proposed with different combinations of carbon accounting methods and control rules. To evaluate their performance, we performed simulation studies using models of a 27-home, all-electric, net zero energy residential community located in Basalt, Colorado, United States. The carbon intensity data of four future years from the Cambium data set are adopted to account for the evolving resource mix in the power grid. Various performance metrics, including energy consumption, carbon emission, energy cost, and thermal discomfort, were used to evaluate the performance of the controllers. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to determine how the control thresholds and intervals affect the controllers’ performance. Simulation results indicate that the carbon responsive controllers can reduce the homes’ annual carbon emissions by 6.0% to 20.5%. However, the energy consumption increased by 0.9% to 6.7%, except in one scenario where it decreased by 2.2%. Compared to the baseline, the change in energy cost was between –2.9% and 3.4%, and thermal discomfort was also maintained within an acceptable range. The little impact on energy cost and thermal discomfort indicates there are no potential roadblocks for customer acceptance when rolling out the controllers in utility programs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Human Readiness Levels in the Systems Engineering Process at Sandia National Laboratories

The Systems Analysis & Decision Support group (2150) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) led a study from 2015 to 2017 to investigate the utility of various options to achieve systematic and comprehensive incorporation of the human component of a system throughout the product lifecycle. Although technology readiness levels (TRL) are widely used in the systems engineering process to address technical maturity throughout design and development, a comparable technique to estimate the readiness of a technology for human operator use is lacking at SNL. The present study was designed to investigate the utility of a human readiness levels (HRL) scale to complement the TRL scale for the types of nuclear deterrence work conducted at SNL. The study team conducted 24 interviews with 26 individuals to (1) understand the extent to which current baseline design and development approaches at SNL incorporate the human dimension and (2) estimate the utility of various options to fully incorporate the human element in SNL work. Results confirmed that current processes do not manage the human component of a system systematically or comprehensively across programs. Although multiple options were seen to have some utility to address this shortcoming, an approach combining human readiness assessments within the existing TRL scale was perceived as relatively more useful for SNL. The study team created a proposed path forward to progress from the current ad hoc, reactive approach to a systematic, comprehensive, and rigorous approach characterized by full consideration of the human component of a system within and across programs and throughout the entire product lifecycle.

42 ENGINEERING↗